Iowa DNR holds meeting in Cherokee on deer population

CHEROKEE, Iowa (KCAU) — People in Cherokee got a chance to hear about the status of the state’s deer herd population.

The deer herd population in western Iowa has decreased in recent years. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says those in the southwest part of the state tell them they want more restrictive harvests to have a better hunting opportunities.

Up in northwest Iowa, there’s a restrictive harvest of deer for a while. Officials say that after conversations with people at the meetings, there may be discussion of lifting those restrictions if there’s a good balance.

KCAU 9 asked the DNR how the flooding may impacting the deer population.

“When we see a flooding event as severe as we did this summer, unfortunately we do think that could have some serious impacts to local populations,” Jace Elliott with the Iowa DNR said. “Probably not affecting every county equally, but, you know, this flood corresponded with our fawning season to the point that a lot of fawns on the landscape may have only been a few weeks old when this flood came through. So there’s no way of knowing the impacts but certainly could be significant in some areas.”

Thursday night was the 8th and final meeting for the Iowa DNR across the western part of the state.

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